The Vision In His Eye - Hadi Teherani

He recalls: “I already enjoyed drawing a great deal
and spent a lot of time at it when I was a schoolboy.
My daydreams were filled with imagining intriguing
and visionary drafts. In the end, I let the toss of a
coin decide: graphic design or architecture. The
coin made the decision and that’s how things
started off with architecture.”

Teherani was a six-year-old when his parents left
Iran, not because of any political or economic
reason at the time, but simply because they
possessed a strong wanderlust, their son explains.
“They were quite fond of travelling and were
open minded to ‘the new’. The move to Germany
arose from a yen for far-away places and out of
curiosity.”

The family settled in Hamburg where Teherani
put in his early schooling. Architectural studies took place at the Braunschweig University of
Technology from 1977 to 1984, and from 1989 to
1991, he taught at Aachen’s Technical University.

But before going into architecture full time,
Teherani worked as a fashion designer then
established BRT with colleagues Bothe and
Richter in 1991. He set up the eponymous Hadi
Teherani AG in 2003 to further his design work. He
says: “The holistic approach is important to me. In
my opinion, design represents a synthesis of the
arts: it encompasses all the creative dimensions.
Designing furniture, a door handle or a floor,
fashion and even architecture are only individual
spectra of a large, whole entity.

“In recent years, communication design and
storytelling have played an increasing role, too.”

He goes on to explain his fascination with the
creative side of expression: “Design has always
interested me. Ulimately, this spectrum merely
signifies a change of scale and function. Form
follows function: a chair has to be well designed,
comfortable, and shaped ergonomically.

“It’s exactly the same with a house. Here too, the
house has to function for decades to the pleasure
and enjoyment of its inhabitants or users. It can’t be
limited to simply looking good. It ultimately comes
down to anticipating demands and requirements
far off into the future while transposing them into
good design. The only difference is that with
product design we tell a story.”

The age-old debate as to which trumps which,
form or function is irrelevant to Teherani. “The
question can’t be answered with ‘either or’. Both
of them are important, you can’t have one without
the other. And alongside form you have emotion,
identity and sustainability, which equally bear
major importance.”

Inspiration for Teherani, especially when
conceptualising structures, comes from a special
way of “seeing”. He elaborates: “When I see a
piece of property, the draft for it is already there
and waiting – it just has to be recognised. The
draft emerges from that property.

“For instance, the Dancing Towers (one of
Teherani’s most distinctive oeuvres) stand
between the inner city and the historically evolved
suburb of St. Pauli. They form a gateway to the
Reeperbahn, Hamburg’s ‘entertainment mile’”.
In other words, the location is marked by many
different aspects and compounded by the fact
that St. Pauli is an extremely dynamic and bustling
quarter. The guiding idea for my draft is an
expressive structural shell that does justice to the
site’s heterogeneous context and its transregional
significance.”

The evolution of Teherani’s work cannot be easily
captured in mere words. He says he responds to
the client’s brief. “The goal is always to draw up
the best possible draft design. To that extent, my
design always depends on the respective project
involved, on the demands being placed on the
product.

“Although, viewed on the whole I do have an
inclination towards an elegant and “reduced”
look. Many of my draft designs have meanwhile
become classics – the Silver Chair for example
– precisely because of the timeless appearance
and technical innovations. With this, the whole
technology is concealed in the seating surface. It
can do everything an ergonomic chair has to be
able to do, yet what truly sets it apart is that you
don’t see the functional elements and they don’t
disrupt the form.

“On the other hand, what happens to me time and
again is that my ideas are so visionary that people
aren’t ready for them yet. Then, a few years later
those same ideas are taken up on a widespread
scale. The St@ndby Office I designed in 2000 is a
noteworthy example: these days there is no lack
of similar mobile office units, but 18 years ago
they were too innovative.”

But in whatever Teherani does, “It’s about finding
the right answer to a question, a solution. How do
I design something so that it’s functional on the
one hand, and appeals to me on the other,” he
says.

What materials does he favour working with?

“It’s the new materials that always pique my
interest. They frequently make new liberties in
designing possible. Sustainability is a matter of
course.”

Speaking about sustainability, he adds: “People
are increasingly beginning to give thought to the
context of a given product again: what kinds of materials is it made of, is it recyclable, can I buy
it with a clear conscience? Aspects like these
are gaining weight in addition to a good design.
Intriguing approaches and solutions emerge from
these.”

He cites the example of his partnership with the
firm Alimex which resulted in the development
of a product named stylecast®, a wall cladding
comprised of by-products from manufacturing
aluminium which exhibits a 100% percent
capability for recycling.”

He adds: “All of our design products originate
in co-operation with manufacturers. We don’t
produce on our own. What results from these cooperative
efforts are interesting and rewarding
dialogues in which each partner is able to let
their expertise flow into them. I recently designed
a chaise longue made of marble in a limited Art
Edition for the firm DRAENERT and learned a
great deal about working with this particular stone
from the experts there.”

Most of Teherani’s designs are available directly
from the respective co-operation partner including
Carpet Concept, FSB, Keramag, Interstuhl,
Poggenpohl, Thonet, Vorwerk, Walter Knoll,
Zumtobel among many others.

Hadi Teherani Consultants, employing 100 men
and women, is headquartered in Hamburg and
has offices in Frankfurt and Munich as well
as architectural bureaus in Tehran, Iran and
Bangalore and a presence in Moscow and Dubai.
Designers, interior architects and architects work
closely together in the Hamburg hub, according to
their boss, it’s precisely the short communication
routes that enable the team to come up with
holistically conceived solutions. He says: “Since
the architect’s profession has evolved with time
and project management nowadays is handed
over to consultants, I founded a consulting firm
so that this sector is readily offered along with our
other services.”

How his people work is to start a joint kick-off
conference date that includes everyone involved
in the project. Following that, the design teams
have to be able to work further on a self-reliant
basis under Teherani’s remote, yet close direction
because of his intensive travel. But he assures:
“We do meet regularly for feedback rounds
where the current status and further product
development are reviewed and stipulated.”

No stranger to accolades, Teherani especially
treasures his multiple MIPIM Award, received in
2003 for “Berliner Bogen” office building complex
in Hamburg, in 2007 for the “Europa-Passage”
mall in Hamburg, in 2009 for the “Kranhäuser”
crane houses in Cologne,and in 2014 for the
Dancing Towers in Hamburg.

“Every prize is a confirmation of one’s own work,
and in that sense each award always acts as a
motivation, too,” he says. “Although, to me the
greatest reward is that people passing by on the
street in Hamburg often recognise me and speak
to me: they congratulate me on the buildings I’ve
constructed or thank me for a certain structure.”

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